Kansas - The Prelude Implicit/Native Window

What does Kansas sound like without founders and songwriters Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh?  After 1998’s Always Never the Same, Steve Walsh told the band he wasn’t writing any more songs for them.  Luckily for the band, two years later Kerry Livgren wrote an album’s worth of material.  The excellent Somewhere to Elsewhere was the result.  But after that album, Livgren decided he wasn’t going to write for Kansas anymore either.  It took the rest of the band nine years to figure out that if they wanted to make more music, they’d have to write the material themselves.  That’s a tall order for people who don’t write songs.  They had recorded songs from outside songwriters before [Power and In the Spirit of Things], but the results were mixed at best.  The original material from Steve Walsh and Steve Morse was easily of higher quality than what came from outside the band, so I’m sure the band didn’t want to repeat that experience.  So the other four guys decided if they want to make new music, they’d better write it themselves.   

The other four members of Kansas [founders Phil Ehart & Rich Williams, bassist Billy Greer and violinist David Ragsdale] decided to do something outside of Kansas without sounding like Kansas.  Thus was born the band Native Window.  Rich Williams said in an interview that Kansas received feedback from their fans that wherever they went, the opening bands were crappy.  And the thought became “why don’t we become our own opening band”?  And they did just that – Native Window opened shows for Kansas.  In 2009, these four guys exercised some songwriting muscles they didn’t know they had and came up with a ten-song CD, their eponymous debut.  It has a little of everything – blues, bluegrass, folk, and some rock.  Bassist Billy Greer [who BTW is a fine vocalist] sings lead on all but one song [David Ragsdale sings the other one].  There are a lot more acoustic sounds on Native Window than one would hear on a Kansas record. Violins & acoustic guitars are ever-present, but mandolins are new musical colors for these guys.  I also heard something else I never heard on a Kansas album – electric slide guitar.  It is a great-sounding album.  As befitting a smaller ensemble than Kansas, the sound is more intimate.  I won’t do a song-by-song review of Native Window because I like it all.   My only complaint about the album is that it is only 41-minutes long.  The added benefit of making this album was it prepared Kansas for the time when their songwriter left the band, which Steve Walsh did in 2014.

Kansas, The Band – With Steve Walsh since the 1990s, Kansas had been a five-piece band [one guitar, bass, drums, violin, keyboards].  Walsh did double duty on vocals and keys.  Now he’s been replaced by two people – singer Ronnie Platt and keyboardist Dave Manion, and the band returned to a two-guitar lineup with the addition of guitarist Zak Rizvi.  Now a seven-piece, the Kansas sound benefits from the bigger lineup.  With a bigger lineup came a return to the Seventies-era vintage Kansas sound.  Rich Williams doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting by himself anymore.  With three new members also came new musical ideas and a willingness to commit them to tape.  When both Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh were in the band, there was a bit of schizophrenia to the band.  Kerry Livgren wrote the more sprawling, epic, progressive tunes [think Song for America] while Walsh wrote the more concise, harder-rocking songs [think Paradox, Lightning’s Hand, or Sparks of the Tempest].  That’s an oversimplification of their Seventies sound as there were exceptions to the rule [Carry On Wayward Son is definitely NOT proggy].  But there were definitely two sides to the band.

After Walsh took the helm of the band in 1985, the band went in a more “hard rock” direction [having a guitarist like Steve Morse didn’t hurt, either].  When the original band regrouped for 2000’s Somewhere to Elsewhere, Livgren wrote all the songs, where the arrangements were more intricate and three of the songs clock in over seven minutes.  Contrast Somewhere to Elsewhere with Walsh’s solo album Glossolalia, which was recorded at the same time as Somewhere to Elsewhere.  Walsh’s album as pretty close to metal, and some of the songs [most especially Smackin’ the Clowns] are downright head-spinning [in a good way].  I digress, but I do so to make a point.  Left to their own devices, the music the band created on The Prelude Implicit sounds like a direction Steve Walsh would have gone in [and did to a certain extent] with Glossolalia.  The sound is harder with more of an edge.  Three of the songs from The Prelude Implicit clock in over six minutes.  Those are the songs I like the most.  The more the band plays and the less Ronnie Platt sings, the more I like it.   Which brings me to…

Ronnie Platt – I’m not sure what to think of this guy.  I’ve read many online reviews where the reviewers just love his voice.  I’m not convinced [yet].  A great performance by the band could be offset with lame vocals.  Sometimes this is the case with Ronnie Platt.  He has the unenviable task of following Steve Walsh.  Walsh’s vocal gifts have been diminished over time, and sometimes it was painful to hear him live.  When he retired from the band in 2014, he himself said it was “time for him to go.”  I can hear where the band would think there’s enough of the old Steve Walsh to please the hardcore fans, but enough of his own voice to make him just a little different.  As for Ronnie Platt’s vocals, when he sings in lower registers he’s pretty good – I have no complaints there.  But when he goes higher, he sounds like a combination of being somewhat robotic to being somewhat whiny.  To these ears, sometimes his vocals are cringe-worthy.  I’m trying very hard to like this guy.  I don’t dislike him, but I’m just not sold on him yet.  Oddly enough, I’ve heard clips on YouTube of him singing the older tunes, and he nails them.  He channels Steve Walsh just fine, but it’s the original material on this new album that gives me pause.  There are songs on The Prelude Implicit where I think bassist Billy Greer would have sung them better [he did have the main mic on Summer].

The Songs

With This Heart – When George Martin produced the Beatles, he said that he always wanted to begin an album with what he called “potboilers” – songs that would get your attention immediately.  Kansas did that with Leftoverture [Carry On Wayward Son] and Point of Know Return [the title song].  With This Heart is not one of those songs.

Visibility Zero – This song has more energy than With This Heart.  It’s starting to grow on me.  I’m learning to live with the vocals on the chorus.

The Unsung Heroes – A ballad, and a boring one at that.  Next!

Rhythm in the Spirit – Twin guitar harmonies begin this one.  Now we’re getting somewhere!  Then the robotic whine begins and kills the song.  This one had such promise…

Refugee – An acoustic guitar and violin intro.  Interesting so far…then Ronnie Platt sings.  But this time, it works.  He sounds good here.  Signs of life - I like this one.

The Voyage of Eight Eighteen – This one clocks in at 8:18.  Kansas is in more familiar territory here.  The band finally gets to stretch out and remind people what set Kansas apart from other American bands.  Things are looking up here.

Camouflage – Another long-ish song at 6:42.  A keeper.

Summer – Bassist Billy Greer sings lead.  A higher-tempo song, this one has a bit of a Celtic feel to it in the intro.  A short, concise rock song at 4:07.

Crowded Isolation – The best song on the album.  Kansas knocks this one out of the park.

Section 60 – The album ends with an instrumental, tribute to our men and women in uniform.  This closer is another outstanding track. 

But as they say on TV, “wait, there’s more!”  The deluxe edition has two bonus tracks.  I like one – the other I can do without.

Bonus tracks:

Home on the Range – Yes, where the deer and the antelope play.  All I can say is “what were these guys thinking”?  Whiny Ronnie is back on this one.

Oh Shenandoah – This one from the Great American Songbook is played as an instrumental, and it’s a fine piece.

On a scale of 1 to 5 [5 being “buy this album now!”], I give The Prelude Implicit a 3.  I give Native Window a 5.  Between the two albums, there is plenty of good music to be heard.

John Wetton - RIP

Dammit all, we lost another one today.  John Wetton lost his battle with cancer today [1/31/17].

He wasn’t a household name, but if you were alive in 1982, you heard him on the radio a lot, whether you wanted to or not. John Wetton was the voice of Asia.  Heat of the Moment and Only Time Will Tell were both in heavy rotation in 1982.  Heat of the Moment was at #1 for six weeks [but I thought the b-side, Ride Easy, was a better song].  The album from whence it came [Asia] was at #1 for nine weeks.  Before he was in Asia, John Wetton was the singer/bassist for King Crimson, with whom he did three studio albums [Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red].  After King Crimson’s premature demise in 1974, John Wetton was a wandering minstrel.  He recorded several albums with Bryan Ferry, became a member of Uriah Heep [recording Return to Fantasy (1975) and High and Mighty (1976)].  After his time in Uriah Heep he founded UK with Eddie Jobson, with whom he did two albums [UK (1978) and Danger Money (1979)].  UK split because of the old musical cliché, “musical differences”.  But they really did have differences.  Jobson wanted to do longer instrumental pieces, and Wetton wanted shorter songs.  Wetton then joined Wishbone Ash for one album [Number the Brave (1981)], replacing founding member Martin Turner.  His stay in Wishbone Ash was a short one.

When I was a freshman in college, I heard that Carl Palmer [ELP], Steve Howe and Geoff Downes [Yes] had formed a band with a guy from King Crimson, of whom I’d never heard at the time.  That guy was John Wetton, and the band was Asia.  I thought “hmmm…Yes is prog, ELP is prog, King Crimson is prog, this ought to be interesting.”  I bought the album.  There were some really good songs on it [see my playlist].  If I never hear Heat of the Moment or Only Time Will Tell, I’m ok with that.  Good songs?  Yes.  Overplayed?  Definitely.  Despite the progressive rock pedigree of all the members, Asia was anything but progressive.  They’re albums had short, concise pop songs.  I also thought a band with Steve Howe would have more guitar playing.  The first album had a good balance between Steve Howe’s sounds and Geoff Downes’ sounds. 

They lost that balance on their second album, Alpha.  Alpha was ok, but not nearly as good as the debut.  My thought was they turned into a British version of Journey [songs about girls, romance, lots of keyboards, etc].  Apparently the record-buying public and their record label [Geffen] thought the same way, and Asia sacked Wetton.  Greg Lake took his place for the Asia in Asia thing on MTV [back when they actually played music on that channel], but that was just a stop-gap thing.  Wetton came back on the condition that Steve Howe would leave.  I wonder if he had the same musical differences with Steve Howe that he had with Eddie Jobson.    Howe left, and Asia brought in a guy from Krokus (?!?) named Mandy Meyer.  His guitar was more hard-rock than Steve Howe.  The one album with Meyer [Astra] tanked.  There were a few songs I liked [again, see my playlist], but the rest of the album was extremely ordinary.  The band folded due to lack of interest.  That all having been said, I like John Wetton’s voice. I thought [and still do] that he was the vocal equal of Greg Lake.  

But what about his music outside of Asia?  When King Crimson remastered their entire catalog I found that I liked the three studio albums he did with them [Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red] as much as the first two with Greg Lake [In the Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon].  His bass playing is loud, and it’s aggressive.  My favorite of the three albums is Red.  Said Wetton of the album:

“At the time we were recording, Robert Fripp said he wanted to take a backseat, because we wasn’t sure where this was going… Bill Bruford and myself knew exactly where it was going. We took the front seat on it, and pushed for that very up-front … in-your-face guitar [sound]. Yeah, definitely. We did that. You can hear it from the first track. This band is not f—ing about.  It was balls-to-the wall progressive rock. It was s–t-hard rock ‘n’ roll. It was heavy metal, really.”

The title song is a very angry-sounding instrumental, one that is exactly as Wetton described it.  It is the most emblematic of the album's overall direction.  Fallen Angel has beautiful acoustic guitar based sections for the verses, and thunderous chaos in the chorus – loud electric guitar, louder bass, and a cornet blasting away.  One More Red Nightmare is a classic, with funny lyrics about Wetton’s apparent fear of flying, and some excellent drumming from Bill Bruford.  Starless was a leftover from Starless and Bible Black, which Fripp and Bruford didn’t like then.  While most of Red was loud and in your face, Starless was the quiet Mellotron ending which would be at home on In the Court of the Crimson King.  Suffice to say, in my opinion if you’re going to own any King Crimson albums, get both In the Court of the Crimson King and Red.  They dovetail quite well.

Between his stints with Asia, John Wetton had a solo career.  There two albums from that period I can recommend – Battle Lines [1994] and Rock of Faith [2003].  They lean toward the ballad side of things, as do the three Icon albums he did with Geoff Downes [think “Asia without the guitars”].  He didn’t leave his prog roots behind him, though.  He managed to record a live album with Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett called The Tokyo Tapes [to which I’m listening as I write this].  It has a mix of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Greg Lake-era King Crimson, Steve Hackett’s solo catalog, one Asia tune [guess which one], and one solo John Wetton tune.  In addition to John Wetton and Steve Hackett, Ian McDonald and Chester Thompson [the drummer, not the keyboard player].  There’s some very good stuff here, including a very interesting All Along the Watchtower.

The original Asia band reunited in 2006 and immediately started touring.  They released a live album, Fantasia Live In Tokyo, the following year.  It consists of songs from the first two Asia albums, but there’s a twist – the band does one song from each of the members’ prog past – Roundabout, In the Court of the Crimson King, Fanfare for the Common Man, and the very un-proggish Video Killed The Radio Star.  I wondered how Wetton would do on Roundabout since his voice isn’t high and squeaky like Jon Anderson’s.  Not only did Wetton nail the vocal, he crushed Chris Squire’s bassline.  Singing and playing bass simultaneously is hard enough, but to do so on Roundabout is quite impressive.  After the live album, they did three more studio albums [Phoenix, Omega, and XXX] before Steve Howe left at the end of 2012 to concentrate on Yes and his solo career.   John Wetton’s voice showed no signs of wear and tear.  He sounded as good as he did during the 1980s.  And these Asia albums addressed two complaints I’ve had about their albums dating back to Alpha [1983] – the songs got longer, and Steve Howe has a bigger role to play.  In fact, the first song from Phoenix [Never Again] has Steve Howe coming out the gate breathing fire, while John Wetton sings of having changed his ways since he was a nasty alcoholic.  The final song from the album [An Extraordinary Life] sees Wetton evaluating his life after he’d had triple bypass surgery prior to making Phoenix.  In the midst of recording these Asia albums, John Wetton managed to put out a solo album in 2011 [Raised In Captivity].  After Steve Howe left, Asia made one more album [Gravitas], this time with guitarist Sam Coulson.  The final song, eerily titled Till We Meet Again, was the last song they recorded.

John Wetton was supposed to participate in Asia’s North American tour with Journey [see?], but his health prevented him from doing so.  He had been in and out of the hospital over the past 2 years for cancer treatment, including a 2015 surgery and struggles with sepsis.  He said just three weeks ago:

"While I am naturally disappointed to miss the beginning of what I know will be an historic Asia tour, I am intending to return to the stage with Asia later in 2017 - dates soon to be announced. I know this decision will be in the best interests of my health and our fans in the long run."

John Wetton died in his sleep the morning of January 31^st.  Yes bassist Billy Sherwood [who ironically has filled in for Chris Squire since Squire’s death] will replace Wetton for now.

His writing partner Geoff Downes wrote this about John Wetton:

Many of his personal life experiences were reflected in his lyrical contributions to the songs. His heart was always in the music. That was John, through and through. It was always about - the music.  His bass playing was revolutionary. His voice was from the gods. His compositions - out of this world. His sense of melody and harmony - unreal. He was literally a 'special one'.

Carl Palmer, who has had to do this too often in the past year, said this:

 “With the passing of my good friend and musical collaborator, John Wetton, the world loses yet another musical giant. John was a gentle person who created some of the most lasting melodies and lyrics in modern popular music. As a musician, he was both brave and innovative, with a voice that took the music of ASIA to the top of the charts around the world. His ability to triumph over alcohol abuse made him an inspiration to many who have also fought that battle. For those of us who knew him and worked with him, his valiant struggle against cancer was a further inspiration. I will miss his talent, his sense of humor and his infectious smile. May you ride easy, my old friend.”

Here’s a playlist of my favorite songs from John Wetton:

Fallen Angel [King Crimson – Red (1974)]

One More Red Nightmare [King Crimson – Red (1974)]

Starless [King Crimson – Red (1974)]

Let Me Go [Wetton/Downes – Icon (2005)] 

The Hanging Tree [Wetton/Downes – Rubicon (2006)]

Steffi's Ring [Raised In Captivity (2011)]

I Stand Alone [Wetton/Downes – Icon (2005)]

Battle Lines (Acoustic) [Battle Lines (1994)]

Mondrago/Rock Of Faith [Rock of Faith (2003)]

Goodbye Elsinore [Raised In Captivity (2011)]

We Stay Together [Raised In Captivity (2011)]

Whirlpool [Wetton/Downes – Rubicon (2006)]

I’ve Come To Take You Home [Rock of Faith (2003)]

Rendezvous 6:02 [UK - Danger Money (1979)]

Book of Saturday [King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)]

Lament [King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black (1973)]

The Night Watch [King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black (1973)]

The Great Deceiver [King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black (1973)]

Hold Me Now [Battle Lines (1994)]

Who Will Light A Candle [Rock of Faith (2003)]

Heart Of Darkness [Sinister – 2001]

Ride Easy [Asia – Single B-side (1982)]

Roundabout [Asia - Fantasia Live In Tokyo (2007)]

In the Court of the Crimson King [Asia - Fantasia Live In Tokyo (2007)]

Never Again [Asia – Phoenix (2008)]

An Extraordinary Life [Asia – Phoenix (2008)]

There Was a Time [Asia – Omega (2010)]

Through My Veins [Asia – Omega (2010)]

Holy War [Asia – Omega (2010)]

Light The Way [Asia – Omega (2010)]

Face on the Bridge [Asia – XXX (2012)]

Midnight Sun [Asia – Alpha (1983)]

Open Your Eyes [Asia – Alpha (1983)]

The Heat Goes On [Asia – Alpha (1983)]

Never in a Million Years [Asia – Alpha (1983)]

Sole Survivor [Asia – 1982]

One Step Closer [Asia – 1982]

Time Again [Asia – 1982]

Wildest Dreams [Asia – 1982]

Cutting It Fine [Asia – 1982]

Here Comes the Feeling [Asia – 1982]

Go [Asia – Astra (1985)]

Suspicion [Asia – Astra (1985)]

After the War [Asia – Astra (1985)]

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now:  cancer sucks.

Songs in the Key of Keith

After having spent about two weeks immersed in the music of Greg Lake and Keith Emerson, it was time to go “back to basics” of the music from another Keith, in this case Keith Richards.  As I wrote in a previous blog, in the latter part of the 1960s Keith Richards decided he wanted to try other things to be able to play the tunes he was hearing in his head.  This led him to try different tunings – Open D, Open E, and especially Open G.  Just what is an open chord?  In standard tuning [EADGBE], one has to form chord shapes with your fingers to play an E, a D, or whatever chord you want to play.  If you have long fingers, forming chords isn’t a problem.  But for those with shorter fingers, sometimes it can be a problem.  Not so much with open chords.  To get an open chord you tune specific strings to that get the sound you want.  For Open G, that tuning is DGDGBD.  Once tuned thusly, you can strum the guitar without fretting and you get the sound of a G chord.  Keith likes the Open G tuning because he can move fingers around on only two or three strings while holding down a barre chord.  The remaining unfretted strings create a drone sound, the hallmark of the Stones’ sound since 1969.

I had some great songs to choose from.  There are two that I considered but didn’t include – Tumbling Dice [Mick, not Keith, plays the rhythm] and Sway [Keith didn’t play on it – he only sang].

Soul Survivor [Exile On Main Street, 1972] – This is the last song from Exile On Main Street.  The band had a helluva time recording tracks at Nellcôte. Who is going to be the death of Mick Jagger – Bianca, the new jet-setting wife?  The new lifestyle?  Keith the junkie?  I don’t know, but this is what a Stones song is supposed to sound like.

Can't You Hear Me Knocking [Sticky Fingers, 1971] – The Stones don’t normally jam, but they do here.  Mick Taylor said it happened by accident.  Everyone thought they were done but Taylor just kept on playing.  Everything after the 2:40 mark is the band just “winging it.”  It’s not a bad result for a band that doesn’t improvise.

Honky Tonk Women [Single, 1969] – This one is the first Stones song to bear the then-new Open G imprint.  Others that were in an open tuning [in this case, Open E], were the likes of Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man., and Gimme Shelter.  In his memoirs Life, Keith Richards admitted that he took Ry Cooder [who showed him the tuning] for all he was worth. This song is the first of many Stones songs that Keith would use the Open G tuning.  To not include this song in a list of my current favorites in Open G would be blasphemy.

Brown Sugar [Sticky Fingers, 1971] – Mick Jagger wrote the riff, the words – everything, but Keith played it.  Who else but the Stones would record a song about slavery and interracial sex with a title that’s slang for heroin?  Bobby Keys played a career-defining sax solo.  If you’re interested, the long-rumored version with Eric Clapton on slide does exist on the deluxe version of Sticky Fingers.

Wild Horses [Sticky Fingers, 1971] – I’ve seen much debate on music discussion boards on whether this is an Open G song.  Then I found two online guitar lessons of this song on YouTube, both of which were done in Open G.  That was good enough for me.  Keith played it on a ten-string guitar tuned to Open G [a 12-string with the bottom 2 strings removed].  Keith wrote this about his feelings for going on the road and leaving his son Marlon behind.  Of note, the Stones let Gram Parsons [and the Flying Burrito Brothers] record it first for Burrito Deluxe.

Rocks Off [Exile on Main Street, 1972] – This is the leadoff track for Exile on Main Street.  This is done in a modified Open G [EGDGBD].  The bottom E string is retained, but the rest of the tuning remains.  Mick Jagger sums up the drugged-out Seventies - Your mouth don't move but I can hear you speak… It’s also a commentary on the rock and roll lifestyle - The sunshine bores the daylight out of me.

Rip This Joint [Exile On Main Street, 1972] – Punks take note.  Can you play this well at this speed?

 

Turd On The Run [Exile On Main Street, 1972] – No particular reason other than I think it’s a cool song.

Ventilator Blues [Exile On Main Street, 1972] – This is an ode to Keith Richards’ basement in Nellcôte.  It was so hot and humid the guitars would quickly go out of tune.  Charlie Watts had trouble nailing the drum part.  Bobby Keys knew how it should go.  He clapped the beat off-mic.  Charlie played off Bobby Keys.

Hand Of Fate [Black And Blue, 1975] – Lyrically, this is a first cousin to Heartbreaker [from Goats Head Soup].  The solos sound like Mick Taylor, but it’s really Wayne Perkins.  This song is the reason I bought Black And Blue.  This one is fun to play.  Hell, they’re all fun to play, but I really enjoy playing this one.

Love Is Strong [Voodoo Lounge, 1993] – This is the leadoff track to Voodoo Lounge.  Voodoo Lounge is the Stones’ attempt to travel back in time and sound like they used to, circa 1972.  The gloss and sheen from 1989’s Steel Wheels is gone.  If you’re keeping score, Voodoo Lounge is a “Keith” album.  If you listen closely, Love Is Strong bears a strong resemblance to Keith’s Wicked As It Seems, from 1992’s Main Offender.

Low Down [Bridges To Babylon, 1997] – Since Keith Richards kicked heroin in 1978, there has been a struggle between him and Mick Jagger over the musical direction of the Rolling Stones.  Mick was the one who kept up on the latest sounds, on what was popular to the music consuming public.  On Bridges to Babylon, there are synthesizers, sampling, tape loops, techno, and even some rap [on Anybody Seen My Baby…blech!].  Bridges to Babylon has been seen by reviewers as a “Mick” album. This song has Keith stubbornly keeping to the old Stones formula.  The sound of Keith’s guitars in the song inspired me to buy a Telecaster and tune it to Open G.  Once I did that and played it myself, it was a “Eureka!” moment for me.

It Won't Take Long [A Bigger Bang, 2005] – I learned this one the same night I learned Low Down.  Again, part of my “Eureka!” moment.

 

Amnesia [KR – Crosseyed Heart, 2015] – Keef described this as an “after-album party”.  It was the last song recorded for Crosseyed Heart.

Wicked As It Seems [KR – Main Offender, 1992] – This is Keef at his funky best.  It’s better than its cousin Love Is Strong.  I like them both, and here they are.

Take It So Hard [KR – Talk Is Cheap, 1988] – This is track #2 from Keef’s first solo album, Talk Is Cheap.  At the time it was released, the future of the Stones was in doubt.  It was Keef’s own admission that he couldn’t keep the Stones together to hit the road.  When Rolling Stone magazine reviewed Talk Is Cheap, they called it the best Stones album since Exile On Main Street.  For once, they were right.  I first heard this one on MTV, back in the day when they programmed music videos.  I was hooked to this one – still am.

Mixed Emotions [Steel Wheels, 1989] – After the disaster that was Dirty Work [1986], most thought the Stones were finished [and for three years, they were].  But Mick and Keef buried the hatchet, and this was the result.

Hold On To Your Hat [Steel Wheels, 1989] – There are three songs in Open G from Steel Wheels – the opener Sad, Sad, Sad, the single Mixed Emotions, and this one.  This one is like a modern-day version of Rip This Joint, only the guitars are louder and rawer.

High Wire [Flashpoint, 1991] – A great riff.  This was the single from the live album that documented the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour.  It’s not a commentary about the Gulf War – it’s a commentary about how we got to that war in the first place.  This is Bill Wyman’s Rolling Stones swan song.

Greg Lake and Keith Emerson - Songs of a Lifetime [RIP]

Progressive rock, or “prog” for short.  For the longest time, I thought of it as a pejorative – music without guitars, or just music in something besides 4/4 time.  It’s a bit of a contradiction.  Its serious music played by serious people.  There’s not a hint of rebellion or fun in it, unless you consider its seriousness a rebellion from the rock form.  It can be long-winded, bombastic, pompous, and pretentious.  Only in the world of prog could an eight-minute song like Roundabout be considered a single.  Prog has its place.  If you want to hear long songs played by well-schooled, technical, precise musicians, this is the music for you.  And for me [sometimes], it is.  Sometimes I like the excess that is prog.  Prog became a dirty word for some because of the likes of Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and King Crimson.  These bands created songs that would last an entire album side.  The worst example was Yes’ Tales of Topographic Oceans – a four-sided album with four songs.  One needs to have a lot of patience to sit through the whole thing.  I did – once.  That is precisely the number of times I listened to that work from beginning to end in one sitting.  When I was finished, I put it away for 30 years.  But I come not to slag prog as a genre.  Bands like Rush and Dream Theater have given prog a metal [or at least a hard rock] edge, and a much better name.  I can listen to those guys anytime.  Pink Floyd is considered by some to be prog, and I love Pink Floyd.  But I write now because Greg Lake died on December 7^th, and Keith Emerson preceded him in death in March.  

I don’t know when it was.  It was a very long time ago.  When I first heard Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Lucky Man, I knew that the guy who sang it would be one of my all-time favorite singers [this was before I discovered Paul Rodgers and Gregg Allman].  This was my introduction to Greg Lake.  I knew the ballads he sang from hearing them on the radio – Still…You Turn Me On, From the Beginning, and my favorite Christmas song, I Believe in Father Christmas.  Those were just the ballads.  Words fail me [as they often do] to describe Greg Lake’s voice.  But I found this from columnist Richard Stellar which captured it perfectly:  

“Backed by the late Keith Emerson and percussionist Carl Palmer, Lake’s voice would on one song lull the listener into a somnambulistic zone of quiet romanticism — and on the next track disembowel the senses with a battle cry that was a harbinger for the times.”  

Yeah…Greg Lake was that good of a singer.  

In my freshman year of college in Boulder, my dorm neighbor was playing something that I’d never heard before.  It was then he introduced me to Brain Salad Surgery.  Here was the warped genius that was Keith Emerson in all his compositional and performance glory.  That was the hook for all things progressive for me.  Soon followed Yes and King Crimson.  But ELP was different from all the rest.  They were a rock band where the keyboards were the main instrument in an era when the guitar was king [and still is as far as I’m concerned].  Like their contemporaries, they could overindulge on the side-long epics, but they could also do shorter radio-friendly songs, usually written by Greg Lake.  They were different.  Lake’s band before ELP, King Crimson [which he founded with Robert Fripp, a childhood friend from Bournemouth], were equally different.  

King Crimson’s debut, In the Court of the Crimson King has been hailed by many as a great masterpiece.  I’m not one of those who think it’s great, just merely good.  It has only five songs, all of which are over seven minutes.  And of those, I like three of them – 21^st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, and the title song.  These songs are stone cold classics.  Epitaph and the title song is where you hear Ian McDonald’s Mellotron, the sound that Pete Townshend characterized as “sirens down a canyon.”  Greg Lake sings one of his most beautiful vocals on Epitaph.  It conveys something one rarely hears in prog – emotion.  One rarely listens to prog for its lyrical content, but the chorus from Epitaph is gripping - "Confusion will be my Epitaph/As I crawl, a cracked and broken path/If we make it, we can all, sit down and laugh/but I fear tomorrow I'll be crying..."  The vocals combined with the Mellotron make for a compelling listen.  The woodwinds are a great touch.  Yes, it’s that good.  21^st Century Schizoid Man is pure dementia.  It’s hectic, it’s scary.  The combination of the blistering, aggressive guitar work of Robert Fripp, the distortion of Greg Lake’s voice, and the manic saxophone of Ian McDonald are the musical equivalent of shock and awe, long before that phrase became part of the lexicon.  The conclusion is a dissonant train wreck, which just puts an exclamation point on the chaos and disorder.  The title track is simply majestic.  But the less said about I Talk To The Wind and Moonchild, the better.  They’re quiet, and they’re nice, but not very interesting compared to the album’s three standouts.  The original King Crimson broke up two months after the release of their debut, but Fripp convinced Lake to stick around long enough to sing on the second album, In the Wake of Poseidon.  The opener, Pictures Of A City, is almost a carbon copy of 21^st Century Schizoid Man [without the distorted vocals].  The title track is similar to Epitaph from the first album.  There is a sense of déjà vu on In the Wake of Poseidon, but that’s not a bad thing.  When Greg Lake was finished with this one, he departed King Crimson to form ELP with Keith Emerson.  

Keith Emerson and Greg Lake met in San Francisco, at the old Fillmore West.  Both The Nice and King Crimson played on the same bill for a three-night stand.  These were the last shows the original King Crimson would play.  Before one of these shows, The Nice were doing a soundcheck.  On the spur of the moment, Greg Lake grabbed a bass and hopped on stage with them.  Emerson and Lake felt an instant musical connection.  Before the Fillmore shows were done, the two agreed to form a new band.  A couple of months before his death, Greg Lake told Newsweek what both he and Keith Emerson were thinking when they decided to form their own band:  

“I think the fundamental thing was that Keith Emerson and myself had this shared belief that too much rock ’n’ roll music had been based on the blues, Motown, gospel, country and western—all American-influenced.  I hasten to add: Nothing wrong with that; I love American music. At the time, Keith and I agreed that there needed to be something different taking place. And so we decided, really, to use European influences rather than American influences, in our music.”  

And they did just that from the beginning [no pun intended].  On their eponymous debut, two of the songs are classically-based.  The astounding instrumental opener The Barbarian is based on a piece by Béla Bartók, named Allegro Barbaro, and contains all the elements of a classic ELP song.  It’s very much a duel between Greg Lake’s distorted bass and Keith Emerson’s Hammond, with Carl Palmer holding things together in the middle while demonstrating extraordinary technique.  Carl Palmer is like Ginger Baker in that he approaches drumming from a more jazz side rather than rock like John Bonham or Keith Moon.  He gets his own showcase with Tank.  Knife Edge takes its cues from Leoš Janacek’s Sinfonietta, with a little Bach thrown in.  Keith Emerson’s The Three Fates is an eight-minute suite of three sections [Clotho (organ solo) and Lachesis (piano solo), and Atropos (a piano trio)] that allows him to show off on the grand piano and the Royal Festival Hall’s pipe organ [a great sound!].  Greg Lake’s Take a Pebble is more of a showcase for what Keith Emerson could do on the piano.  It’s where ELP is more thoughtful, when they turn down the volume, and Keith steps back from the aural assaults with the Hammond organ.  This is what a piano sounds like when you hold down a chord and strum the piano strings with a guitar pick.  Take a Pebble would not be out of place on a King Crimson record.  Lucky Man is perhaps the song for which ELP is best known.  Greg Lake’s acoustic guitar songs were the yang to the yin of the instrumental bombast of Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer.   

As well-known as Lucky Man is, its creation was an afterthought only because they were one song short for the record.  When Eddy Offord the engineer told Greg Lake the producer they were one song short, each member asked the other ‘what have you got”?  Lake had something he wrote when he was 12.  The other two had nothing.  Emerson didn’t like it, so he went to the pub while Lake and Palmer made the record.  At first it was just the acoustic guitar and drums.  Even Lake thought it sounded “dreadful”.  But then he added bass, an electric guitar solo, and loads of block harmony vocals.  It became a proper record.  When Emerson returned from the pub he was astonished by what he heard and thought “I better play on this”.  Since there was already a guitar solo the only place for Emerson was at the end.  He had just taken delivery of a Moog synthesizer.  He started to experiment with the sound, not knowing Lake a pushed the “record” button.  When Emerson was done, Lake and Offord looked at each other and agreed that the “experiment” was the keeper.  That’s the take we’ve heard for 46 years.  And it almost never happened…  

Tarkus (1971) upped the ante with a side-long epoch [the title song] about a creature that’s a cross-between an armadillo and a tank that fights an epic battle with a Manticore [whatever that is].  A strange concept, yes – it was the 70s.  It consists of seven parts [Eruption - Stones of Years – Iconoclast – Mass – Manticore – Battlefield - Aquatarkus].  Eruption is truth in advertising -  the playing is volcanic.  Stones of Years is slower, a much-needed breather after Eruption, and Greg Lake’s voice is in fine form.  Mass doesn’t do much for me – neither does Aquatarkus.  But the rest is pure gold.  I saw ELP do Tarkus in 1998 – there’s a lot going on in this piece, and it was hard to believe Emerson could do as much live as he did, but he pulled it off.  He  later did an excellent orchestral version [no vocals] on his Three Fates Project that is worth seeking out.  The album as a whole is uneven.  The two songs on the second side that are memorable, A Time and a Place and Bitches Crystal, sounded much better when they were played live for the first time in 1997-98.  Originally these two songs were at the top of his range.  But as Lake’s voice aged, Emerson tuned them down slightly and they sound fantastic [hear them on Then & Now].  To show they weren’t as seriously as their critics alleged, they threw away two tracks with Jeremy Bender and Are You Ready Eddy, a practice they would repeat on Trilogy [The Sheriff] and Brain Salad Surgery [Benny the Bouncer].  That’s a pity because they left a good song from Greg Lake [Oh, My Father] in the can.  

Trilogy [1972] – After the concept of Tarkus, ELP went back to songs.  Except for the aforementioned The Sheriff, I like this album all the way through.  Trilogy is probably the most complete album ELP ever made.  Greg Lake provided the hit single, From the Beginning.  Keith Emerson did his first cover of Aaron Copland with Hoedown, from Copland’s Rodeo ballet.  The Endless Enigma sounds mysterious, spooky, and churchy all at once.  Trilogy [the song] is as it implies – three songs in one.  It starts with “strings” and a piano with Lake singing.  It sounds like it’s going to be a romantic number, but at the three-minute mark Emerson begins playing the Trilogy riff, then synthesizer hell breaks loose [this is a good thing].  Abaddon‘s Bolero is another nod to classical music.  Like Ravel’s Bolero, it starts quietly and gets louder as each instrument is added [they did lots of overdubbing on this album].  

Brain Salad Surgery [1973] – this one is the classic.  In retrospect, this was ELP’s peak.  Karn Evil 9 was the 29-minute centerpiece.  This is one of the few times that I thought I could do without Greg Lake’s singing [but his electric lead guitar work is stellar], and I wanted to hear an instrumental-only version of the whole piece.  My wish was partially granted in 2007 when Shout Factory re-released Brain Salad Surgery in 2007.  It contained the instrumental track for all of the first movement.  It works very well without the vocals.   In 2014 BSS was released again, and it had the backing track of the Third Movement of Karn Evil 9 without the vocals.  Like the First Movement, it works without the vocals.  And since the Second Movement was a piano solo, I have the whole thing as an instrumental.  Toccata is based on the Fourth Movement of Alberto Ginastera’s 1st Piano Concerto.  Emerson played it for the man himself in order to get his approval to release.  Ginastera loved it.  Emerson told the story of his meeting with Ginastera:  

"I was dubious about taking my arrangement to such a famous man. We had a delicious dinner and afterwards I showed him the arrangement, and began to talk about it. He didn't speak much English and his wife had to translate everything. Finally, Ginastera said, '...Please! Just play the tape!’ After he had listened to them all the way through, he turned to his wife in amazement. 'Diabolic!!' he exclaimed. I was terrified. I thought he hated it or thought I was the devil or something. But then, he smiled. He turned to me and said, "No one has been able to capture my music like that before! It's exactly the way I hear it myself!' "  

Jerusalem and Still…You Turn Me On are the songs that got loads of airplay along with Karn Evil 9, 1^st Movement, Part 2 [“Welcome back my friends to the show that never end, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside…”].  Jerusalem was actually banned by the BBC because they thought ELP’s arrangement was somehow sacrilegious.  Still…You Turn Me On was a good acoustic number which got better with age when Lake played it live.  He stripped away all the instruments a left it as just him and acoustic guitar [hear it on Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1993].  

I Believe in Father Christmas [Single, 1975] – Greg Lake released this as a single under his own name in 1975 [but Keith Emerson makes his presence known on the instrumental break].  It went to #2 on the British charts [#1 was Bohemian Rhapsody – he was ok with that].  This is my favorite Christmas song – period.  

Brain Salad Surgery, and the triple album that documented the ensuing tour [Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends ~ Ladies and Gentlemen…] culminated five years of constant recording and touring.  They took a three-year break to do their own things, which came together on Works, Volume [1977].  Some of it was good. Some of it not so much.  This double album devoted a side each to solo work, and one side to group work.  Keith Emerson did his Piano Concerto No. 1.  Greg Lake did what was expected of him [acoustic love songs, a couple of them a bit too syrupy].  C’Est La Vie is noteworthy with its French quality [Keith Emerson playing the accordion].  His song Hallowed Be Thy Name [not to be confused with Iron Maiden] was a bit strange, but it is interesting [good enough for me].  Carl Palmer did a couple of classical short pieces [Two Part Invention in D Minor from J.S. Bach and The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits from Sergei Prokofiev], and he re-did Tank with an orchestra.  The group side has Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man [which I like] and Pirates [which I don’t like].  In total, there were 14 songs, six of which I liked.  When they were done, they hit the road with a 70-piece orchestra.  This extravagance nearly ruined them financially [they ditched the orchestra after three weeks], and affirmed what the punks were saying about them being “dinosaurs.”  Works, Volume 2 is an “odds and sods” collection.  Love Beach is another way to spell “contractual obligation”.  It has no redeeming value, and showed ELP were out of ideas and out of gas.  They quietly disbanded in 1979.  

Keith Emerson went on to work on movie soundtracks.  Carl Palmer formed Asia with John Wetton, Steve Howe, and Geoff Downes.  Greg Lake made two solo albums [Greg Lake and Manoeuvres].  What surprised me was the direction of those albums.  Having been associated with keyboard-based music since 1969, he opted to create acoustic guitar ballads when given the chance.  Once away from ELP, he chose to do neither keyboard-based music nor acoustic ballads.  He hired guitarist Gary Moore [yes, that Gary Moore] and went in a hard-rock direction.  Most noteworthy was Gary Moore’s song Nuclear Attack.  This was harder than anything he did with King Crimson and ELP.  But it worked.  But it wasn’t to last, as he still liked to write about women.  After Manoeuvres he took another break from music.  Then Keith Emerson called in 1985… 

Keith had new music.  Record executives heard the music and thought “wouldn’t it be nice if Greg Lake sang on them?”  Once again Emerson and Lake created new material.  The problem was they needed a drummer.  Carl Palmer already had a job with Asia, which made him unavailable.  They found a drummer whose initials just happened to match Carl Palmer’s – Cozy Powell.  They did one album [Emerson, Lake & Powell].  The prog purists may not have liked it but I did.  This was an album like Trilogy – no side-long epics, just songs [some long, some short].  They did an especially effective adaptation of Mars, The Bringer of War by Gustav Holst.  I also liked Touch & Go, Learning To Fly, and The Miracle.  They trio toured behind the album, but there was no interest in making a second album.  Then in 1992 Emerson, Lake and Carl Palmer got an offer to make music for a movie.  The movie never happened but they did record an album together called Black Moon.  The format was like the Emerson, Lake & Powell album – some short songs, some long songs, but no epics.  Between 1985 and 1992, Greg Lake’s voice got “darker”.  I think cigarette smoking was the culprit, but Lake still had the powerful pipes, albeit a little lower. I liked Black Moon, Paper Blood, Affairs of the Heart, Changing States, and Footprints in the Snow.  Things were not well with Keith Emerson, however.  He suffered from repetitive motion injuries in his right arm.  Playing became difficult for him.  He had corrective surgery but it barely helped.  They did another album in 1994 called In the Hot Seat.  It’s notable for having a studio version of Pictures At an Exhibition.  Apart from that, there are maybe three good songs on it [Hand of Truth, Daddy, The Man in the Long Black Coat].  

ELP toured in 1997 and 1998.  I got to see them open for Deep Purple in Denver in 1998.  Theirs was a good set, just not great.  But they did play Tarkus – the whole thing.  That part of the set was amazing.  Emerson & Lake toured as a duo in 2010, and the trio played one last show that same year.  After that show, Carl Palmer told the other two he didn’t want to do it anymore.  Keith Emerson formed his own Keith Emerson Band with Marc Bonilla.  They did one studio album and one orchestral album [Three Fates Project].  The studio album was pretty good/.  There were lots of little instrumental pieces, with some songs with vocals.  I prefer the instrumentals, which were very good.  The vocals?  Well, Greg Lake had nothing to worry    .  The orchestral album [which had no vocals] was very good.  It had a version of Tarkus [yes!].

After In the Hot Seat, Greg Lake never made another studio record under his own name or with ELP.  He did play bass on The Who’s song Real Good Looking Boy, and he continued to tour.  Keith continued to have problems with his right hand.  For him it got to the point that he was extremely underwhelmed by his own performances.  He was afraid his sub-par performances would let down his fans.  He was due to tour Japan this past spring, but his anxieties [and alcohol] got the best of him.  He took his own life on March 11, 2016.  Many musicians from the generation that created the music I like [Lemmy, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Merle Haggard, etc] have died within the past year.  Keith Emerson’s passing just added to the Grim Reaper’s tally.  As December 8^th [the date of John Lennon’s death] approached, I saw a post on Facebook from a British record producer whom I count as a friend.  It said simply “RIP Greg Lake”.  I thought “Shit!  Another one?”  Yes, and now not only is Keith Emerson gone, but so is Greg Lake.  Cancer took him away.  2016 has been brutal.

Rest in Peace, gents.